How to breathe | Belisa Vranich | TEDxManhattanBeach

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Breathing - so essential to life, and yet most of us are doing it wrong! Dr. Belisa Vranich, psychologist and breathing expert, shares some surprising information about breathing and teaches us all how to do it right.

Dr. Belisa Vranich is a clinical psychologist, author, public speaker, and the author of “Breathe: The Simple, Revolutionary 14-Day Program to Improve your Mental and Physical Health”. As founder of The Breathing Class™, Belisa has taught and lectured nationwide on topics related to dysfunctional breathing patterns and stress. The Breathing Class™ addresses both physical and psychological problems related to oxygenation that is out of balance, and teaches people to breathe in an anatomically congruous way that maximizes balanced inhales and exhales. Belisa received her PhD in Psychology from New York University and completed an internship at Bellevue Hospital with specialization in neuropsychology, psychiatric consultation and liaison, and bilingual treatment. An outspoken advocate for women’s health issues and veterans’ rights, Belisa also volunteers with several animal rescue organizations and is an advisory board member of Philosophy’s Hope and Grace Mental Health Campaign.

Take a deep breath.

Yes, right now.

Come up from the back of your seat.

Sit up straight and take
a big inhale, fill all the way up,

and then exhale.

Deep breath in and exhale all the way out.

Now, do you feel like you get
a little bit taller on the inhale?

Yeah?

How you get taller and stretch upwards

and on the exhale sort of settle down?

Because I'm seeing it.

Well, if you do, you're what I call
"a vertical breather."

And unfortunately, it's an anatomically
incongruous way to breathe,

meaning that you're breathing
out of sync with your body.

However, nine out of ten people
breathe this way.

So, here's what happens
when you breathe vertically.

First thing that happens is that you
overuse your neck and shoulder muscles.

You see, your neck and shoulder muscles
were never meant to be breathing muscles.

So, even though it's a small movement,

you're doing it thousands of times a day,

millions of times a year, year after year.

So, if you have neck and shoulder pain -

just a little, right -

you can blame the car,
you can blame the computer,

but first and foremost
blame your breathing.

Second thing is that you're only using
the top part of your lungs.

Where's the biggest,
most oxygen-rich part of your lungs?

Right down here.

Take your hands. Put them there.

There we go. Right down here.
The biggest, densest part of your lungs.

Do you use these
when you breathe vertically?

No.

So, you actually have to take
several smaller breaths,

that is breathe faster
to get the air that you need.

Now, here's what's most fascinating
for me as a psychologist:

the vagus nerve is a nerve
that goes to the back of your head

and goes throughout your whole body.

"Vagus" means "wanderer" in Latin.

And it does; it wanders
throughout your whole body,

picking up signals
to tell your brain how to feel.

Now, when you're breathing vertically,

the vagus nerve automatically

puts you into a stressed out
fight-or-flight mode.

And it doesn't matter what's going on
in your surroundings -

they could be perfectly mundane routine -

you're going to be in a fight-or-flight.

So, this connection to stress
is what got me interested in the breath.

I woke up one fall several years ago
with a dull, throbbing pain in my jaw.

And I found myself
at the dentist's office,

hearing those five words
you never want to hear,

"Do you have dental insurance?"

(Laughter)

I didn't.

And being a compulsive type A,
I wasn't just grinding my teeth;

I was pulverizing them.

So, thousands of dollars later,

I came to the conclusion
that I was not controlling my stress;

it was controlling me.

It was time for a change.

I started by signing up for a yoga class,

where we would do breathing exercises
at the beginning of class.

I heard words like kapalabhati, ujjayi.

We would breathe
through one nostril, then the other;

we would do breath holds.

I was intrigued. I dove in headfirst.

I took every class I could find,
read every book,

studied every academic article.

I found myself in classes
with gong baths and chakra balancing.

I read articles about cellular respiration
and rates of oxygen exchange.

I studied breathing in birthing,

freediving, singing, and martial arts.

What was most alarming to me
was when I looked around,

almost everyone I knew
wasn't breathing correctly.

And I knew - the medical research said -

that breath affects your sleep, your back,

your digestion, your memory, anxiety;

all these different things.

It affects parts of our body
that you'd never even consider,

like esophagus and your pelvic floor.

It wreaks havoc
throughout your whole body.

It affects your immune system,
your adrenal glands, acidity.

So, I formalized what I was learning
into a method and started teaching.

Now, who do you think
were the first people that called me?

Was it members of the wellness community?

Was it New-Age folks?

Uh-uh.

SWAT, Homeland Security,

DEA, Border Patrol,

Military and Law Enforcement.

We know the importance of the breath.

Ancient yogis say we come into this world
with a certain number of breaths,

and we can take them quickly
and live a short lifespan,

or we can take them deeply and slowly
and live a long lifespan.

4,000 years later, fast forward,

the Framingham study found that breathing

is predictive of longevity
in a quantitative way,

longevity and health.

So, I know what you're thinking.

"I'm breathing wrong? How could this be?"

Well, relax, it's not all your fault.

Sometime between the ages of five and ten,
your breathing changes

from a lower-body breath
to an upper-body breath.

And it happens because of several things.

Number one is that you go to school
and you start sitting a lot.

And sitting affects your posture,
which affects your breath.

You go to the doctor;
the stethoscope goes here.

They say, "Take a deep breath,"

and you think, "Hm, my lungs
must be up here."

Someone pokes you in the belly
and calls you fatty,

and hence starts years,
even decades of gut sucking.

So even now, as an adult,
you're sucking it in

because you're thinking
it makes you look thinner,

because it's an emotional
response to fear,

because it's a bracing stance

that helps you feel prepared
to run or to strike.

Because you believe the myth

that tensing your abs
makes your core stronger.

But the breath has no choice
but to rise to the top of your body,

become vertical, and stay there.

So, what should you do?

Look no further than your toddler,
your dog, your cat, even your fish.

They breathe expanding and contracting
in the middle, using the diaphragm.

Now, much of the confusion
around breathing occurs

because we don't really
understand the diaphragm.

It's a muscle deep inside;

it's depicted as this little red line
that crosses the body,

when actually it's much more
like the Starship Enterprise,

this enormous muscle
in the very middle of your body,

separating your thoracic cavity
from your digestive organs.

And the only reason it was put there
was to help you breathe,

if you let it.

So, let's get intimate with the diaphragm.

Right now, really. Take your fingers.

Put them right here,
at your sternum. Okay?

Walk them around the bottom of your ribs.

Go! Keep walking. There we go.

Now, your ribs are attached
to your sternum like handles on a pail.

On the inhale, they're meant
to move out horizontally,

and on the exhale,
they narrow with your body.

What a beautiful machine the body is.

But maybe it's time that we revisit
this cornerstone of our health,

especially now when the narrow screens
of the computer or handhelds

result in us sipping in
tiny amounts of air;

little inhales and little exhales
or sometimes none at all.

Alright, let's fix this.

Come up from the back of your seat.

Come on up.

Scooch up to the front
of your chair. Alright.

We're going to do a breathing exercise.

This is called Rock and Roll.

You're going to put
your hands on your belly.

We're going to do the exaggerated version

until your diaphragm starts to kick in,
starts to get engaged.

So, you might get
a little bit lightheaded.

Enjoy it. Alright?

(Laughter)

So, I want you to tip forward,
inhale, let your belly go. Ready?

Tip forward, inhale, let it go, expand,
exhale, squeeze, round your back.

Belly button gets closer to your spine.

Use your abs.

Inhale, tip forward, let your belly go.

Expand it.

Exhale, squeeze; get all that air out.

Round your shoulders;
they have nothing to do with this.

Big inhale, expand. Exhale, squeeze.

Forwards and back.

You're now breathing horizontally.

We're going to do a breathing exercise.

It's a Counting Breath.
It comes from the military.

It's my favorite one.
It's called Tactical Breath.

So, you're going
to inhale for four, hold for four,

exhale for six, hold for two.

We're going to do it together.
Ready? Okay.

Inhale - two, three, four -

hold - two, three, four -

exhale - two, three, four, five, six -

hold - two.

Inhale - two, three, four -

hold - two, three, four -

exhale - two, three, four, five, six -

hold - two.

Inhale - two, three, four -

hold - two, three, four -

exhale - two, three, four, five, six -

hold - two.

Close your eyes - two, three, four -

hold - two, three, four -

exhale - two, three, four, five, six -

hold - two.

Tip forward.

Inhale and continue on your own

with a beautiful, anatomically congruous
lower-body horizontal breath.

Thank you.

(Applause)